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July 27, 2006
Ironman Appeal
It is a fairly hot day here in the Midlands, UK. This morning when I drove into work I saw some drops of rain fall on my windscreen and thought to myself that today was the day we were going to get another thunderstorm and the air will cool down a little. As it turns out, those few drops that fell just contributed to the humidity in the air and made things less pleasant than before.
But enough of that. I have something to tell you, something to ask you, and hopefully I can help someone make a dream come true, even if it is a drop in the bucket, many drops eventually does fill the bucket. I don't normally do this, but it breaks my heart to see someone as talented as this woman, seeing a dream slip away from her.
Yesterday I found out that a woman in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, won her age group during Ironman South Africa. In doing so, she qualified to go all the way to Kona and compete in the Ironman World Championships on the 21st of October. The problem is that in South Africa, the exchange rate is completely nonsense. The average salary a month is around R8000 – which roughly translates to about $1000 or £615 a month.
A return ticket from Port Elizabeth to Hawaii costs around R20 000. When she found out that she qualified (way back in March!), she paid the entry fee and decided that she would try to raise the money via various fundraisers and even her club jumped in to help, but from what I hear, she’s not had much success.
At this moment, three months later, she still hasn’t reached the halfway mark, and with every passing day, she trains her heart out, but when I spoke to her yesterday (I phoned her to find out how it was going), she fears that she’s not going to be able to make it to Kona.
I think it is heartbreaking that someone who has worked that hard won’t be able to get to take part in something that is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Is there anyone else out there that feels this way and might want to help? I’m posting this on the odd chance that someone might want to contribute to helping her get there. I’ve already contributed to her fundraising myself, but a few more drops will definitely help her.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll keep you up to date on how things are progressing, but in the meantime, if there is any way that you feel you would like to contribute or help, please email me or leave a comment and I’ll get in contact with you.
Her name is Davera Magson – if you want to see a picture, go here– on the front page she’s the one on the left and on the news section of the page, there is a bit that she wrote as well as the appeal to her club members to help with fundraising.
Posted by karinm at July 27, 2006 10:56 AM
Comments
Hi there, please send us all the details that you can about this girl, get her to get in touch with us and we'll put this up on our website - it's a Port Elizabeth community site, so we might be able to raise some local awareness.
Cheers
Hilton
Posted by: Hilton at July 27, 2006 11:34 AM